Eleven hurt after car crashes near London museum

LONDON: Eleven people were injured on Saturday when a car mounted the pavement and ploughed into pedestrians near London’s Natural History Museum, leading to the driver’s arrest, although officials ruled out a terrorist link. Police said it was a traffic incident after three attacks in the British capital this year in which vehicles were deliberately driven into people on the street. Crowds in the area, which is popular with families and tourists, fled screaming in panic when the car veered onto the semi-pedestrianised Exhibition Road in South Kensington. Witness accounts and footage posted on social media showed a man being pinned down on the ground by passers-by, next to a black car with a smashed bonnet. “The incident is a road traffic investigation and not a terrorist-related incident,” London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement. “Whilst enquiries continue it is believed a car mounted the pavement and collided with a number of pedestrians.” It said the arrested man was among nine people taken to hospital, while two others were treated at the scene.